Effective July 1, the following changes will apply for new applications for homeowner transactional and portfolio mortgage insurance:

Limiting the Gross/Total Debt Servicing (GDS/TDS) ratios to our standard requirements of 35/42;

‘The Bank of Canada today maintained its target for the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of ¼ percent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly ½ percent and the deposit rate is ¼ percent.’ – Bank Of Canada

Effective Monday May 25, 2020, the Bank of Canada 5-year Benchmark Qualifying Rate is 4.94%

Sales 2,975
Average Price $821,392
New Listings 6,174

Sales 8,012
Average Price $902,680
New Listings 14,424

‘The Bank of Canada today maintained its target for the overnight rate at ¼ percent, which the Bank considers its effective lower bound. The Bank Rate is correspondingly ½ percent and the deposit rate is ¼ percent’ – Bank Of Canada

Some lender prime rates are at 2.45%

‘The Bank of Canada today lowered its target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points to ¼ percent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly ½ percent and the deposit rate is ¼ percent.’ – Bank Of Canada

‘Effective March 23, 2020, the Bank of Canada 5-year Benchmark Qualifying Rate is reduced from 5.19% to 5.04%.’

What does that mean?

If you were purchasing a home for $700,000 using a $175,000 down payment and the annual household income was $126,000, you can now purchase a home for $708,690 using the same amount of down payment.

Some lenders are allowing you to deref your mortgage payment for upto six months.